


Small Obsessions

by AvaDiablo



Series: Innocent Kisses [3]
Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: M/M, Platonic Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-11
Updated: 2016-03-11
Packaged: 2018-05-26 04:23:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6223708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvaDiablo/pseuds/AvaDiablo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's that one kiss that keeps lingering in Aiba's mind, but maybe Nino is not the one who he can talk to about that...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Small Obsessions

Work was busy and hectic as usual and god was Aiba thankful for it. His days were too busy to think about anything else but work. And he needed it, badly. Because standing still was doing no good. Even in the green room it was still about work, as they ate and shared their days. He could pretend things were alright. There were no weird glances thrown his way, no secret looks or smiles. And even if Aiba didn't intentionally keep his distance, unconsciously his body did.  
Because Sho might be functioning normally after that kiss, Aiba's mind didn't let him forget. But work was work as they talked and did fun things together for their shows. 

Aiba was still worried about Sho's mental state ever since he left that evening but at the same time he just couldn't get himself to drop by and instead resorted to calling him when he had time. The more they spoke, the more he got confused. So, Aiba worked - maybe extra hard - on every bit of work he could get his hands on.

Trouble was however that after - or maybe especially after - work, his mind would forget about those busy days completely and his mind started to linger on the kisses without missing a heartbeat. And not just any kisses, but this one kiss in particular. He remembered the feeling of soft warm lips moving against his; the view of closed eyes and long lashes; the scent of his skin when he inhaled; the warm hands moving over his clothed body; the tongue -

"Hey!" Nino shook him out of his daze with his comment, "Are you paying attention to anything I've said so far?" Aiba blinked. Nope, not a word of what his friend had said had made it through to his brain and he apologised, smiling shyly for forgetting he was even there. 

Nino nodded at it, instantly forgiving, but instead of retelling his story, the younger one stayed silent sipping from the bottle of beer he held as they leaned on the far end off the bar. It was one of those days when work ended early and they could spend some time together.  


"What's been going on with you lately?" Aiba shrugged under Nino's watchful eyes. "Don't give me that shit, Aiba-shi! I know something is wrong. We've been friends for far too long for you to be able to hide anything from me." But that didn't mean he didn't still try. Every time he thought he got something passed Nino, the other had a subtle way of letting him know he knew what was going on - in some of those cases he 'kind of' respected Aiba's privacy. Apparently tonight was not one of those times.

And Nino's snooping didn't mean he was going to spill the beans that easy. That being said, Aiba thought to himself, he should probably quit drinking. Alcohol made him sensitive to talk about stuff, before skipping into the 'I love Arashi' phases, which fans loved hearing about and everyone close to him thought it as slightly annoying, even though the overall consensus was that he was pretty adorable every single time. Usually - depending on the amount of drinks - Ohno would follow Aiba's example, and sometimes even Jun joined in. 

Nino drank, but hardly ever to get drunk. He said alcohol wasn't doing much for him, but Aiba had long since learned that Nino kept his eyes and ears open and used the gathered information when people least expected it. He gave off the vibe of being stingy and bratty; someone who knew what to say to spice things up, to taunt. He had built his walls of protection so high that even around his closest friends he didn't let them completely down. Over the years since their youth, Nino had learned how to break down Aiba's defences, almost without effort. 

Nino knew how to bulldoze the wall his friend put up - and Aiba didn't mind all that much, usually - Nino on the other hand didn't take too kindly when Aiba started poking at the cracks in his carefully maintained walls. Because, let's face it, Nino wasn't the only one who knew how to break down defences and creep under your skin. They both had just different ways of doing it.

Aiba peered into the opening of his bottle before taking the last sip. "Have you ever done something... You know, that you think turns out one way and then it turns out to be completely something else? You know, when you write a song you're not too crazy about, but then you play it and you end up loving it? You know what I mean?" He looked at his younger friend who nodded but didn't return his look, just stared ahead to the opposite side of the bar where a few of their mutual friends were having lively conversations.  
"I think I do," Nino said contemplating. It wasn't the lack of so much of a side glance, or the way his voice sounded; slightly worried for some reason. In hind sight, Aiba couldn't recall what tipped him off - but something was off with Nino too.

"What's with you? Normally you'd be all over me with stupid questions about my 'girly' feelings and such." Nino shrugged like Aiba had done just a moment ago. "Don't give me that crap, Nino-chan!" Aiba imitated Nino's comment from a minute ago, "We've been friends way longer-"  
"Shut up, idiot!" Nino mused with a small smile, "We were talking about you. What's this thing you did that ended up being different than you thought?" When Aiba stayed silent Nino arched a questioning eyebrow with a mischievous grin growing on his lips. He had heard a whole sheer of crazy experiments gone wrong in their time growing up, so the fact that Aiba couldn't voice this ought to be good. "If you're not going to say it, I'm going to assume things. And you know how my mind works." Aiba smirked a little, sighing troubled.

"Are you crushing on someone you shouldn't?" Nino took a last sip with a devious smile and ordered two new beers for them, leaving Aiba stunned and only noticed it until he wanted to make a mock toast on the comment.  
"Oh, lord, really?" Aiba looked at him confused, weird out and guilty - among other things. He stared at his hands, obviously troubled on what to do. "You need to learn not to wear your heart on your sleeve, Aiba-chan," Nino mused calmly, even though Aiba was pretty sure Nino was already checking off a list with potential crush-worthy candidates Aiba could have fallen for. He sighed preparing for Nino's witty comments and snark. The trouble was he didn't know what to do or how to respond. Sho didn't show any signs of seeking more into the kiss than he should, and by his own admission he had said that it was meaningless and its sole purpose was to make Sho feel better. Instead of it working out that way - Sho hadn't talked about the kiss and acted normal around him, it all made Aiba feel worse and lost.

Forgetting was easy during the days. His nights however were a different story. The kiss had long since progressed into dreams Aiba would rather forget, feelings he didn't know how to deal with, images of ripped apart clothes lingering on bodies ... It got to the point he began to question if he was in love or something like that. 

Though he doubted he was; if anything - wouldn't he have found that out sooner in their careers? They were half naked most of the times, with all the running around from concert to concert. Surely he mind and body would have picked up on that, right? While his mind ran around in circles, it dawned on him Nino wasn't engaging in teasing him - at all. When he glanced at him, he looked almost equally troubled.

"Are you-" Aiba started when Nino cut him off.  
"I heard about your kiss." Single, not plural. And Aiba just nodded. Of course he knew. This was Nino after all. He probably would have pushed and pushed until the rapper had cracked. He wondered if he could ask if Sho felt the same about it, but admitting the kiss to Nino even after nodding was harder than he thought. He couldn't just come out and say 'I kissed a guy and I liked it'. The instant the sentence crossed his mind, so did the Katy Perry song - which really didn't make things better.

Even though Nino kept a neutral expression there was something tangible in his voice. "I can't believe ... you... him," Nino frowned watching Aiba from the corners of his eyes. He couldn't understand the logic; he couldn't understand Ohno's logic for sharing a kiss. Aiba seemed troubled by it a whole lot more than Ohno had assured him. Aiba had a ton of friends much like Jun did, he could have kissed anyone of them. And hearing Aiba's logic come out of the mouth of his leader when he was drunk talking to Nino while playing Dungeon Quest. What if Aiba couldn't get passed it, what it ended in something much worse...

A troubled sigh escaped his lips. "You should talk to him, if you can't forget it," Nino said before taking a rather large swig from his beer. Aiba nodded, a grave feeling spreading throughout his body.  
"It's a lot harder to do than to say," Aiba retorted reluctantly, "I know I have to, but it's not that easy."  
"What are you afraid of?" Nino eyed him, taking another sip. Aiba looked younger and younger in his indecisiveness and worry and Nino saw him shrug yet again.  
"Are you afraid he agrees and wants a romance out of it?" To which his tall friend shook his head, "So, you're afraid he'll say no and probably laugh in your face?" He couldn't suppress the grin that came with the teasing, but the horror in Masaki's eyes made him think again.

"You think he'll laugh at me?" He hid his head in his hands. "Oh, god, this is awful! What am I going to do? I need to forget this ever happened!" His mind frantically sprung into action with the request running down the list of possibilities and their outcomes. Varying from abducting Sho, to a surprise visit demanding answers, to leaving Arashi - not that he considered that option, but it always made it onto the list some how. Nino frowned however.  
"I don't think he will, he-"

In a sudden motion out of sheer panick and highlighted as the best idea on his list with sparkles and neon lettering, Aiba reached out and pulled Nino closer, smashing their lips together. To Nino's credit and Aiba's fortune - since there really wasn't much that could surprise or shock Nino - Nino was too floored and dumbfounded to the point he was almost paralyzed. His eyes widened with stunned disbelieve. And for a moment Aiba felt his lips softening, finding them less reluctant than he would have assumed under the circumstance. 

The desperation grew as Aiba moved his mouth hoping for an answer. An answer to the question if the kiss with Sho was something he felt if he kissed another. He was torn about repeating the kiss like he had shared with Ohno, or the kiss he had shared with Sho. A kiss was still a kiss, right? No matter whom you got it from or gave it too, right? There fell a weird silence around them, with some careful, half amused laughter and giggles as the bystanders didn't know how to react to this. All Aiba heard was his blood pumping at this unpredictable action of his; the search for deeper feelings in this kiss as he let his tongue slip between Nino's lips.

It was at this point when it hit him -hard - as Nino's fist connected rather harshly with his stomach, making him bend over in pain, before he was pushed off his bar stool, slamming onto the floor with Nino hovering over him. He held onto Aiba collar while Nino had his hand clenched into a fist ready to hit him square in the face.  
"What the hell are you doing!? Have you gone insane?!"

There was fire in his eyes, but not the fire Aiba would have preferred. The smoulder and lighting that seem to crack around them was Nino's pure anger - which was directed soley at him. He swallowed painfully; not only from the impact his body had made, colliding with the floor, but the clear rejection and condemnation Nino emitted. There was a loathing like he had not seen before and it was terrifying to witness it. But there was so much more going on beneath the surface as Aiba defiantly returned the stare, waiting for Nino to actually punch his lights out.

Seconds passed between them in utter silence before Nino released his grip and let Aiba fall to the floor. He visibly pulled himself together, breathing deep and strained. He wanted to say something as he moved his hand in an accusing way, but thought the better of it - it was probably be something insultingly harsh any way - before taking his coat and simply walked away before saying something he'd definitely would regret in the end - leaving Aiba on the floor rubbing his hands over his face in shame and what ever else he felt at that point. 

If this whole thing leaked out to the press, there'd be hell to pay. Stupid idiot! Why couldn't he just have waited until they were in a more private place...


End file.
